Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Configurable Billing with Subscriptions Having Conditional Components
CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional
Application No.
61/564,777 entitled "Configurable Billing With Subscriptions Having
Conditional
Components" filed on November 29, 2011 (Attorney Docket No. 126681.0003), the
entire disclosure of which, including Appendices A-F, is hereby incorporated
herein by
reference.
Background
[0002] Many of today's products and services are implemented with an
array of
components, support services, utilities and computing resources, and each of
components has associated costs, including financial costs. As a convenience
to their
customers, vendors typically attempt to provide a wide variety of pricing
options for their
products and services, while also simplify pricing for products and services
into a single
payment or a simple recurring payment. However, the complex, changing nature
of the
modern business environment can stress such attempts at pricing
simplification. For
example, different customer usage patterns can mean a flat fee is too high or
too low
for particular customers.
[0003] As pricing becomes more complex, new problems arise including
problems associated with resource utilization accounting, pricing
configuration, account
management and account status presentation. Conventional attempts to address
such
problems are flawed. For example, some conventional systems are inefficient
and/or
ineffective. Some conventional systems are insufficiently flexible. Some
conventional
systems are difficult to configure and/or administer. Some conventional
systems fail to
clearly communicate account status to customers; for example, such systems may
generate account statements that result in a relatively high number of
customer queries
with respect to amounts owed and/or that are not in accordance with customer
expectations.
[0004] Embodiments of the invention are directed toward solving these and
other
problems individually and collectively.
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SUMMARY
[0005] The
terms "invention," "the invention," "this invention" and "the present
invention" used in this patent are intended to refer broadly to all of the
subject matter of
this patent and the patent claims below. Statements containing these terms
should be
understood not to limit the subject matter described herein or to limit the
meaning or
scope of the patent claims below. Embodiments of the invention covered by this
patent
are defined by the claims below, not this summary. This summary is a high-
level
overview of various aspects of the invention and introduces some of the
concepts that
are further described in the Detailed Description section below. This summary
is not
intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter,
nor is it
intended to be used in isolation to determine the scope of the claimed subject
matter.
The subject matter should be understood by reference to appropriate portions
of the
entire specification of this patent, any or all drawings and each claim.
[0006]
Embodiments of the invention are directed to a configurable subscription
billing management system ("SBMS") having conditional components, and its
associated methods. The associated methods include a method of billing charges
incurred by a customer having a subscription account maintained by a
subscription
billing management system. The
subscription account specifies at least one
subscription to be charged according to a defined rate plan and the rate plan
includes
charge objects having attributes such as a charge type, a trigger condition, a
unit of
measurement, and a cost per unit of measurement. The method includes defining
a
charge segment associated with a charge object, the charge segment being an
expression of at least one time-dependent attribute of a charge object to a
particular
temporal duration of the subscription (e.g. a billing period, or fractional
part of a billing
period), and includes attributes such as its associated charge object and the
charge
object's attributes, an effective start time, a quantity of units, and a cost.
The
customers use of the subscription based product or service is monitored and
charge
events in are generated according to the defined charge objects and segments.
[0007] Other
objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to
one of ordinary skill in the art upon review of the detailed description of
the present
invention and the included figures.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] Various embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure will
be
described with reference to the drawings, in which:
[0009] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram depicting aspects of an example
computing environment in accordance with at least one embodiment of the
present
subscription billing management system (SBMS);
[0010] Figure 2 is a schematic, stack model diagram depicting aspects of
an
example billing service in accordance with at least one embodiment of the
present
SBMS;
[0011] Figure 3 is a schematic diagram depicting aspects of a
subscription billing
management model in accordance with at least one embodiment of the present
SBMS;
[0012] Figure 4 is a schematic diagram depicting at least some aspects of
the
functionality of a billing engine in conjunction with the subscription billing
management
model depicted in Figure 3, in accordance with at least one embodiment of the
present
SBMS;
[0013] Figure 5 is a flow chart depicting at least some aspects of the
functionality
depicted in Figure 4;
[0014] Figure 6 is a flow chart depicting at least some aspects of the
functionality
of the present SBMS; and
[0015] Figure 7 is a schematic diagram depicting aspects of a non-
limiting,
exemplary computing architecture suitable for implementing at least some
embodiments of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0016] Various exemplary embodiments of the present subscription billing
management system (SBMS) are described herein with the specificity necessary
to
meet statutory requirements. However, this description is intended only to aid
a person
having ordinary skill in the relevant art in appreciating and understanding
the subject
matter defined by the claims which follow. Specifically, such a person will
understand
and appreciate the subject matter defined by the claims to be inclusive of
broader,
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narrower, alternative and/or additional embodiments, which may, for example,
include
different and/or additional elements or steps than those included in the
described
exemplary embodiments. Such a person will further understand that the scope of
the
claims includes any embodiment of the claimed subject matter implemented by,
or used
in conjunction with, technologies other than those explicitly described
herein, whether
existing at the time of invention or later developed. This description should
not be
interpreted as implying any particular priority, order, or arrangement among
or between
various elements or steps of the described embodiments, except when such
priority,
order or arrangement is explicitly defined by the claims.
[0017] Various aspects of at least one exemplary embodiment of the
present
SBMS are described below. The present SBMS is generally directed at addressing
problems associated with resource utilization accounting, pricing
configuration, account
management and account status presentation created by complex pricing models,
particularly those associated with subscription billing.
[0018] Embodiments of the present SBMS may address the aforementioned
problems by providing an efficient, effective and flexible system and method
of cost
accounting and billing. A merchant user of such an embodiment may specify
products
and/or services (collectively referenced herein as "products"), for example,
with a web-
based user interface, and associated with charges including one-time charges,
recurring charges and usage-based charges. In accordance with at least one
embodiment of the SBMS, such specification is flexible enough to support a
wide
variety of product subscription options including time-based products such as
telecommunication system use, provision of and access to remote computing
resources, and content delivery products having charge amounts determined
based on
one or more characteristics of the content and/or timing of delivery (e.g.,
charge upon
release, charge after an elapsed interval of time). Customer accounts may be
maintained and associated with subscriptions referencing one or more products
and
services. Subscriptions may be amended over time, and a history of such
amendments
may be maintained. Charge segments, corresponding to charges incurred by
customer
accounts and aligned to suitable time intervals such as time intervals
associated with
time boundaries (e.g., beginnings and endings of days, weeks, months,
quarters,
calendar years, financial years), may be generated in accordance with
subscriptions.
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Charge events may be generated in accordance with charge segments and
formatted
for presentation to customers.
[0019] Aspects of at least one exemplary embodiment of the inventive SBMS
contribute to an ability to support a wide variety of product subscription
options by
providing (1) flexibility in specifying charges, (2) the ability to collect
charges together
as rate plans, and (3) generating charge events based on charge segments and
charge
objects. Examples of such flexible charge specification include charges
specified in
accordance with a commit charge model and charges specified in accordance with
a
discount model. Additionally, a combination of a discount and commit charge
model
can be specified.
[0020] At least some embodiments of the present SBMS may be used to model "pre-
paid" products or services according to a commit and/or discount charge model.
For
example, a merchant may offer products according to subscription based charges
as
well as offer pre-paid products, e.g. a mobile phone service provider may
offer phone
service based on monthly subscriptions or based on a user's advance purchase
of
"minutes" of usage of on the provider's network. For some accounting and/or
reporting
purposes, such a merchant may wish to be able to model the "prepaid" product
sales in
the same manner as its subscription based charges, for example in order to
aggregate
total sales or make direct income comparisons.
[0021] With respect to charges specified in accordance with a commit charge
model,
for example, charges may be associated with a committed amount of resources
made
available by the merchant for potential use by the customer per amount of time
(e.g.,
1200 units per year, 100 units per month, etc.). Resource utilization may be
received
and/or measured at regular intervals, or billing periods, e.g. monthly. If
aggregate
usage exceeds the committed amount for a given period, an overage charge event
may
be generated. An optional smoothing may be applied with respect to aggregate
usage
determination. For example, aggregate resource utilization may be determined
with
respect to a "rolling window" of time with respect to a current measurement
and/or
billing period. For example, a subscription account's base pricing may be
based on the
usage of a particular number of units committed per month, while the same
account
may generate overage charges based on the subscriber's aggregate usage of
units
exceeding a predetermined limit over a preceding interval, e.g. 7 days or 28
days,
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regardless of whether the interval substantially corresponds to a billing
period.
Overage charge events may be applied at a configurable time with respect to
factors
such as the actual occurrence of the overage and/or a current measurement
and/or
billing period.
[0022] Types of discount charge models that may be utilized with at least one
embodiment of the invention include "fixed amount" discount models and
"percentage"
discount models. Discounts may be applied at product, subscription and/or
account
levels. Discounts may be one-time, recurring and/or apply for a limited period
of time.
Discounts may be reversible, for example, application of a discount may be
conditioned
upon satisfaction of the terms specified by a contract. Discounts may be
configured to
apply only to "positive" statements and/or account balances. Alternatively, or
in
addition, "negative" account balances may be "rolled over" between statement
periods.
Discounts may be conditionally applied to all charges or to charges of a
particular type.
Taxes may be determined at a specified time with respect to the application of
a
discount (e.g., after the application of the discount). A determined discount
amount
may be capped with respect to various time intervals (e.g., statement period),
and
discounts may be conditional on the presence or absence of overage charges.
[0023] Figure 1 depicts aspects of an example computing environment 100 in
accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention. A variety of clients
(not
shown) incorporating and/or incorporated into a variety of computing devices
104 may
communicate with a billing service 108 through one or more networks 112. For
example, a client may incorporate and/or be incorporated into a client
application
implemented at least in part by one or more of the computing devices. Examples
of
suitable computing devices 104 include personal computers, server computers,
desktop
computers, laptop computers, notebook computers, personal digital assistants
(PDAs),
smart phones, cell phones, computers, tablets and consumer electronics
incorporating
one or more computing device components such as one or more processors.
Examples of suitable networks 112 include networks including wired and
wireless
communication technologies and networks operating in accordance with any
suitable
networking and/or communication protocol.
[0024] Figure 2 depicts a conceptual "stack" model 200 of an exemplary
embodiment
of the present subscription billing management system (SBMS) hosted on an
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exemplary computing environment, as shown in Figure 1. An exemplary computing
device 204 is in data communication 206 with the billing service 208 over a
network
212. The computing device 204 may include hardware 216, an operating system
220,
and a client application 224. The billing service 208 may also be hosted on at
least one
computing device 228, such as a server, that may include hardware 232 and an
operating system 236. Data related to the billing system may be stored in at
least one
database 240, which may be hosted on a separate computing device (not shown)
from
the billing service 208. The billing service 208 may include one or more user
interfaces
244, including one or more programmatic interfaces and/or one or more
graphical user
interfaces (GUIs), configured at least to enable access to functionality of
the billing
service 208. The billing service 208 may include a product manager component
248
configured at least to enable establishment and maintenance of product and
service
specifications including associated rate plans and charges. The billing
service 208 may
include a subscription manager component 252 configured at least to enable
establishment and maintenance of customer accounts and associated product
subscriptions. The billing service may further include a billing engine
component 256
configured at least to periodically generate charge events in accordance with
active
subscriptions. The billing engine may be further configured to generate
account
statements for delivery to subscription customers based at least in part on
the
generated charge events. Such account statements may be presented to
subscription
customers and accessible to subscription merchant employees in a variety of
formats,
including a printed format and an electronic format, for example, through a
graphical
user interface 244 of the billing service or a user interface 260 of the
client application
224. The database 240 may be divided between data related to product catalogs
264,
customer accounts 268, including customer account statements, and customer
subscriptions 272.
[0025] Figure 3 depicts aspects of an exemplary subscription billing
management
model 300 used to manage subscription billing data in accordance with at least
one
embodiment of the SBMS. Each offered product (or service) 304 may be
associated
with one or more rate plans 308. A rate plan may include one or more types of
associated charge objects 312, including one-time charges, recurring charges,
usage
charges, overage charges and discounts, among other exemplary charge objects.
A
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subscription customer account 316 may be associated with one or more
subscriptions
320. A subscription 320 may define one or more of the specified products 304
and an
associated rate plan 308 for each of the products 304. Subscriptions may have
a start
date 324 and an end date 328. (Note that in at least one embodiment, a
subscription
need not have an end date.) Amendments 332 may modify an existing subscription
320, for example, to update the end date 328, to modify the set of associated
products
(not shown), and/or to modify the selected rate plans 336 associated with the
set of
associated products. Subscriptions 320 may be associated with a set of
contract terms
and conditions, and subscription amendments 332 may correspond to contract
amendments. Charge objects 312 may trigger the generation of charges upon the
occurrence of an event, such as a contract becoming effective and a product or
service
becoming active, an overage being detected, a billing period ending (or
beginning), or a
discount becoming effective (or expiring).
[0026] Charge objects 312 may have attributes including charge identifier
(e.g., a
unique identifier with respect to charge objects), charge name, charge
description (e.g.,
a human-readable description), a charge type (e.g., one-time, recurring, usage-
based,
discount, etc.), a trigger condition or conditions, units of measurement,
object creation
date, "created by" identifier (e.g., referencing an authorized user of the
billing service),
last modified timestamp (e.g., time and/or date), and "modified by"
identifier. However,
charge objects 312 are preferably not associated with a particular date or
dates.
[0027] Rather, a charge object 312 may be used in conjunction with other
characteristics of a given subscription to derive charge segments 340 for that
subscription, with the charge segments corresponding to sub-elements of a
charge
object that may track changes to a charge object 312 (and hence to the charge
or
charges levied) over each of a series of time intervals. For example, multiple
charge
segments 340 may be created with respect to a single recurring charge object
312, for
example, in response to a price and/or quantity change in an associated charge
object
at a certain time or during a certain time interval, such as the expiration of
a discount,
modeled on an "introductory period" for a subscription. As used herein, unless
clearly
contradicted by context, the terms "charge," "charge object," and "charge
segment"
refer to data objects that provide information for generating "charge events."
Further, in
some embodiments, a set or sequence of such charge events may be used to
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determine the charges to be applied to a customer account, and as the basis
for
generating an invoice or bill.
[0028] Charge segments 340 may have attributes including charge segment
identifier
(e.g., a unique identifier with respect to charge segments), a reference to a
generating
charge object (and/or a copy of some or all of the generating charge
attributes), a
quantity of units associated with the charge segment, a cost (e.g., a dollar
amount)
associated with the charge segment, effective start and end dates and/or
times,
"processed through" and "charged through" dates and/or times, and indicators
as to a
charge segment's place in a series of charge segments (e.g., segment number,
last
segment indicator). As is described below, for each charge segment 340, the
billing
engine may generate one or more charge events that are applied to an account
and/or
appear on an invoice. Thus, unlike charge objects 312, charge segments 340 may
be
associated with time intervals, for example based on the subscription start
date,
subscription end date, a subscription billing period, a period in which a
discount or other
form of incentive applies, etc. The combination of a subscription's selected
product,
rate plan, charge model, charge objects, etc. and derived charge segments,
collectively
form a charge specification for the subscription.
[0029] Customer accounts may have hierarchical structure. For example, some
accounts may be "parent" accounts with respect to "child" accounts.
Subscriptions may
be associated with parent accounts and/or child accounts. Account statements
and/or
invoices may be generated with respect to parent accounts and/or child
accounts.
Service and/or resource utilization may be associated with child accounts and
reported
(including aggregated and/or summarized) at a parent account level.
[0030] In accordance with at least one embodiment of the SBMS, conceptual
separation of date-associated charge segments 340 from specified charge
objects 312
associated with subscriptions contributes to billing service flexibility.
While previous
attempts at providing a subscription based management service required a
merchant
to explicitly define how and when various charges should be incurred resulting
in
relatively complicated and non-fungible subscription definitions; however in
the case of
the present SBMS, because the charge objects can be general defined without
being
associated with specific dates or time periods, the SBMS allows a merchant to
use, and
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reuse, a relatively limited set of charge objects to customize its
subscription charging
options to meet particular merchant and/or customer needs.
[0031] For each subscription, the billing engine of the SBMS may generate
charge
events in accordance with charge objects and charge segments associated with
subscriptions. The billing engine may appropriately pro-rate charges when
generating
charge events based on associated charge segment information in the context of
a
service, statement and/or billing period (collectively "billing period").
As part of
processing recurring charges, the billing engine may maintain independent
"processed
through" and "charged through" dates and/or times associated with charge
events.
Recurring charges may be applied in advance so that, in accordance with at
least one
embodiment of the invention, there is a need to keep track of starting points
and ending
points associated with billing engine processing of recurring charges. For
example,
suppose that a charge event associated with a monthly recurring charge is
generated
for the period 3/1/2011 through 3/31/2011. Then the "processed through" date
for the
recurring charge may be set to 3/1/2011 and the "charged through" date may be
set to
3/31/2011. When a corresponding charge event for the month of April is
generated, the
"processed through" and "charged through" dates may be advanced to 4/1/2011
and
4/30/2011, respectively. As will be apparent to one of skill in the art, the
differing
"charged through" date can have consequences for determining and/or
forecasting
revenue and other financial statistics and/or metrics.
[0032]
Referring to Figure 4 by way of example, exemplary embodiments of the
SBMS may include components, such as a billing engine 400, similar to the
billing
agent depicted in Figure 2, which may generate charge events in accordance
with the
subscription billing management model shown in Figure 3. Suppose that a one
year
subscription 408 begins on January 1, 2014 and is billed at a flat-fee per
month and
provides for an introductory rate of $100 per month for the first two months,
then
increases to the standard monthly rate of $200 per month for the remainder of
the of
the subscription. The subscription model may include an introductory rate
charge
object 412 and a flat fee per period charge object 416. The billing engine
will derive
two charge segments based on the subscription's charge objects and effective
dates:
(1) Charge Segment 420 with attributes: effective from 1/1/2011 to 2/28/2011,
price $100, quantity 1; and
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(2) Charge Segment 424 with attributes: effective from 3/1/2011 to 12/31/2011,
price $200, quantity 1.
When the billing engine processes the subscription with a bill through date of
4/30/2011, it produces the following charge events based on the charge segment
data
and the billing period of 1 month:
(1) Charge Event 428 with attributes: fee for 1/1/2011 to 1/31/2011, $100 x 1
=
$100;
(2) Charge Event 432 with attributes: fee for 2/1/2011 to 2/28/2011, $100 x 1
=
$100.
(3) Charge Event 436 with attributes: fee for 3/1/2011 to 3/31/2011, $200 x 1
=
$200; and
(4) Charge Event 440 with attributes: fee for 4/1/2011 to 4/30/2011, $200 x 1
=
$200. Eventually, the billing engine may produce 10 charge events of $200
associated
with Charge Segment 424, one for each of the ten non-discounted months, March
through December, in the 12 month subscription.
[0033] For a subscription, the billing engine generates charge events base on
the
subscription's charge specification(s). In one example, a charge specification
defines a
charge object in accordance with a commit charge model, or a combination of a
commit
and discount charge model... Units of measurement (UOM) may be specified, as
well
as the number of units that are "included" with a base charge amount. The
number of
"included" units may be associated with a time period. For example, the time
period
may be fixed, or may be a "rolling window" that includes the current billing
period. A
"rolling window" may be specified in terms of a number of billing periods that
precedes
and includes the current billing period. A charge event corresponding to the
base
charge object may be generated. The charge specification may also include an
overage charge object¨in the event the subscription customer's usage exceeds
the
number of "included" units (i.e., those the customer is entitled to under
terms of a
subscription agreement or contract) with respect to a particular time period,
the billing
engine may generate additional charge events based on the overage charge
objects,
that is those based on the amount the usage exceeds the number of "included"
units.
For example, the overage charge object may define a specified cost per unit of
usage
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that exceeds the number of "included" units. There may be several pricing
"tiers" (not
shown) associated with various "included" unit amounts that are taken into
account
before overage charge events are generated. Similarly, there may be one or
more
overage charge object definitions that can be used to determine the overage
charges
based on different tiers, amounts, or levels of overage usage.
[0034] The "rolling window" described above is a type of commit charge model
smoothing. Commit charge models in accordance with at least one embodiment of
the
invention may include any suitable type of overage smoothing. For example, as
well as
a "rolling window" and the utilization of other types of accounting windows
(e.g., fixed
windows of time and windows defined with respect to classes of time such as
mornings,
weekends and holidays), overage may be smoothed with respect to measured
resource
utilization trends or averages or other suitable statistical properties.
Measured resource
utilization may be filtered, for example to ignore utilization "spikes,"
allowing a customer
to avoid overage charges if their usage spikes in any one period.
[0035] Referring again to Figure 4, the subscription may provide for 500 units
per
month but calculates overage charges based on a 3 month rolling window. If the
customer's aggregate monthly usage is: 700 units in January, 200 units in
February,
800 units in March, 100 units in April, 700 units in May, and 300 units in
June, then the
customer will have exceeded its monthly allotment by 200 units in January, 300
units in
March, and 200 units in May. However, overage charges will be calculated based
on
the aggregate usage over the two 3 month windows, January-March and April-
June. In
the Jan-March window, overage charge events will be generated based on the
customer exceeding its three month aggregate usage allotment of 1500 units by
a total
of 200. In the April-June window, the customer used only 1,100 units, 400 less
than its
allotment and no overage charge events will be generated. Charge events
associated
with overage may be generated as soon as the overage is detected (e.g.,
detected by
the billing service), or at a later time, for example, at the end of a billing
period or a
smoothing period. At times, some portion of the "included" units may be unused
(e.g.,
as determined based on measured resource utilization). Such unused resource
units
may be credited to a next smoothing period (e.g., effectively increasing the
"included"
units available) or may be cancelled. A "next" smoothing period for a "rolling
window"
may correspond to a movement of the window to include a next billing period.
For
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example, the movement may be quantized with respect to types of time period
such as
a day, a week or a month.
[0036] Figure 5 depicts examples of charge objects that may be specified in a
subscription model in accordance with a commit charge model. An activation
charge
object 504 may result in the generation of a charge event corresponding to a
flat
activation fee at the outset of the subscription. A per-unit activation charge
object 508
may result in the generation of charge events for each license activated under
the
subscription. A per-unit-per-period charge object 512 may result in the
generation of
periodic charge events for each license activated under the subscription, and
may be
variable depending on the number of licenses activated. A flat-fee usage
charge object
516 may result in the generation of periodic charge events corresponding to
usage of a
particular feature of the product and/or service, and may be dependent on the
amount
of usage during the billing period. An incremental service charge object 520
may result
in the generation of periodic charge events corresponding to a committed
amount of
usage of a product and/or service during the billing period. Finally, an
overage charge
object may result in the generation of overage charge events corresponding to
an
amount of usage of a product and/or service that exceeds the committed amount
specified by the incremental service charge object 520.
[0037] Still referring to Figure 5, the present SBMS may generate charge
events
based on the preceding example charge specification. Upon activation 528, the
activation charge object 504 may generate a one-time activation charge event
of
$10,000, which may be waived upon purchase of more than 100 licenses and the
per-
unit activation charge object 508 may generate a one-time charge event of $100
per
activated license 532, which may be waived upon purchase of more than 100
licenses.
For each billing period, the billing engine will determine an amount of
product and/or
service usage during the period 536 and optionally apply any applicable
smoothing
techniques 540. The billing engine will then generate monthly charge events
544,
based on the per-unit-per-period charge object 512 and flat-fee usage charge
objects
516, 520. For example, the per-unit-per-period charge object 512 may generate
charge
events of $60 per license per month, and which may be increased to $65 per
license
per month for subscriptions with less than 10 licenses. The flat-fee usage
charge
object 516 may generate monthly charge events for usage of an email tool,
where the
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charge event is $2000 in any month in which the tool processes less than 1
million
emails and $3000 per month otherwise. Another type of flat-fee usage charge
object
520 may generate monthly charge events based on a $.07 per minute charge per
the
number of units of a service, e.g. minutes of access, used during the billing
period, and
which may be dependent on the aggregated total usage in the billing period,
charging
$.10 per minute if the service is used less than 50 minutes in a specified
time period,
otherwise $0.07/minute. If the usage during the period exceeds a subscription
maximum, the billing engine may also generate 546 overage charge events in
accordance with the overage charge object 525. The units of measurement may be
any suitable measured utilization of resources including purchases, data
processed and
service utilization time.
[0038] Exemplary embodiments of the present SBMS may also permit the billing
engine to generate charge events base on a charge specification in accordance
with a
discount charge model. A discount charge model may be a percentage discount
with
respect to an aggregate amount associated with charge segments in a current
billing
period. Further examples of discount charge models include a fixed amount
discount.
Discounts may be one-time or recurring and may apply to charge segments
associated
with one-time, recurring or usage-based charges. Discounts may be applied with
respect to a current billing period (e.g., on a specified day of each billing
period), or with
respect to any suitable condition or trigger event (e.g., contract acceptance,
service
activation). Discounts may apply for a specified number of billing periods
(e.g., first 6
months of a 12 month subscription) and be limited by a specified account
lifetime
maximum (e.g., a maximum dollar amount). Discounts may be determined based on
charge events associated with particular charges, specified charge types,
products, rate
plans, subscriptions and/or accounts, including opt-in and opt-out
specifications.
Multiple discounts may apply to particular charge events.
[0039] Further examples of charges in accordance with an exemplary discount
charge
model include: apply up to $100 discount per month to all the charges of rate
plan X,
apply 20% discount for every charge of subscription A in the account, and
apply up to
$1000 discount per month to all the charges on the account. Discounts may be
treated
as a type of charge and may generate discount charge events including pro-
rated
charge events as appropriate. The billing engine may generate discount charge
events
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after non-discount charge events and before determining taxes associated with
charge
event amounts. Non-discount ("regular") charge events may be considered in a
sorted
order (e.g., sorted with respect to unique identifier and/or charge event
creation time)
when determining discount charge events. In
accordance with at least one
embodiment of the invention, such ordered consideration enables discount
application
tracking and "reversal" when appropriate (e.g., responsive to subscription
amendment
and/or cancellation).
[0040] Discount charges, while being processed by the billing engine, may
maintain
an open period and a discount balance. Charge events generated in the open
period
may take advantage of the discount before its balance runs out. Subscription
cancellation may reverse the discount applied and return the amount to the
discount
balance. Left-over balance of a discount may be "rolled over" when the current
billing
period closes, or not, as specified, or as determined by criteria set by a
customer or
vendor. Discount charge events may be inhibited if there are no corresponding
regular
charges and/or if such charge events would result in an account balance and/or
a
statement balance less than zero.
[0041] Figure 6 depicts example steps in accordance with at least one
embodiment of
the invention. At step 602, products may be specified, for example, with a
graphical
user interface of the billing service. At step 604, product charges may be
specified, for
example, as part of product specification. At step 606, customer accounts may
be
created, for example, accounts for customers interested in using the products
specified
at step 602. At step 608, subscriptions may be associated with customer
accounts, for
example, when an authorized user of a customer account executes a service
contract
associated with a subscription. At step 610, resource utilization data may be
received.
For example, the billing service may receive utilization data for resources
associated
with subscriptions (e.g., associated with a subscription identifier) from a
vendor of a
product referenced by the subscriptions. At step 612, charges may be applied
to
accounts in accordance with the subscriptions, for example, the billing engine
may
generate charge events as described above. At step 614, one or more financial
metrics
may be determined based on the generated charge events.
[0042] A subscription-based data model in accordance with at least one
embodiment
of the invention may enable efficient and effective presentation of incurred
charges in
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accordance with customer expectations. As described, such a data model
includes a
variety of charge objects for representing a variety of types of charges, such
as
standard usage charges, overage charges and/or discounts. Such charge objects
are
advantageously not time-based, allowing charge objects to be fungible between
specific
subscription instances.
Instead, the data-model applies time-based variables to
relatively generic charge objects to create charge segments specific to the
particular
subscription. In accordance with at least one embodiment of the invention,
such a data
model further facilitates efficient and effective determination of financial
metrics such as
monthly recurring revenue (MRR), total contract value (TCV), total invoice
amount and
annual contract value. For example, such metrics may be determined based on
charge
segments, and rolled up through to the charge, subscription and/or amendment,
and
account levels. Reliable determination of such metrics is not insignificant,
since product
vendor business decisions can depend on resultant values.
[0043] By way of a non-limiting example, Figure 7 depicts aspects of elements
that
may be present in an exemplary computer architecture 700 which may be
configured to
implement at least some embodiments of the present methods and/or processes
and/or
systems. The architecture 700 includes subsystems interconnected via a system
bus
702. The subsystems may include a printer 704, a keyboard 706, a fixed disk
708, and
a monitor 710, which is coupled to a display adapter 712. Peripherals and
input/output
(I/O) devices, which couple to an I/O controller 714, can be connected to the
computer
system by any number of means known in the art, such as a serial port 716. For
example, the serial port 716 or an external interface 718 can be utilized to
connect the
computer device 700 to further devices and/or systems not shown in Figure 7
including
a wide area network such as the Internet, a mouse input device, and/or a
scanner. The
interconnection via the system bus 702 allows one or more processors 720 to
communicate with each subsystem and to control the execution of instructions
that may
be stored in a system memory 722 and/or the fixed disk 708, as well as the
exchange
of information between subsystems. The system memory 722 and/or the fixed disk
708
may embody a tangible computer-readable medium.
[0044] It
should be understood that the present invention as described above can
be implemented in the form of control logic using computer software in a
modular or
integrated manner. Based on the disclosure and teachings provided herein, a
person
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of ordinary skill in the art will know and appreciate other ways and/or
methods to
implement the present invention using hardware and a combination of hardware
and
software.
[0045] Any
of the software components, processes or functions described in this
application may be implemented as software code to be executed by a processor
using
any suitable computer language such as, for example, Java, C++, or Perl,
using, for
example, conventional or object-oriented techniques. The software code may be
stored
as a series of instructions, or commands on a computer readable medium, such
as a
random access memory (RAM) a read-only memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such
as a hard-drive, a solid-state device such as a flash memory drive, or an
optical
medium such as a CD-ROM. Any such computer readable medium may reside on or
within a single computational apparatus, and may be present on or within
different
computational apparatuses within a system or network.
[0046]
Exemplary embodiments of the present SBMS have been described in
detail above and in the accompanying figures for illustrative purposes.
However, the
scope of the present SBMS is defined by the claims below and is not limited to
the
embodiments described above or depicted in the figures. Embodiments differing
from
those described and shown herein, but still within the scope of the defined
SBMS are
envisioned by the inventors and will be apparent to persons having ordinary
skill in the
relevant art in view of this specification as a whole. The inventors intend
for the defined
SBMS to be practiced other than as explicitly described herein. Accordingly,
the
defined SBMS encompasses all modifications and equivalents of the subject
matter as
permitted by applicable law.
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